Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), Composer
(Edward) Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten
Sitter associated with 111 portraits
Artist of 5 portraits
Born in Lowestoft, Britten was taught by Frank Bridge and won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in 1930. Britten and Pears emigrated to the USA in 1939, returning in 1942. Peter Grimes, the first of Britten's ten operas, was written for Pears, designed by Kenneth Green for the reopening of Sadler's Wells in 1945. Billy Budd (1951) was commissioned for the Festival of Britain and the War Requiem (1962) for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral. Lifelong partners, they started the Aldeburgh Festival in 1948, and in 1972 founded the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies.
by Sarah Fanny Hockey
watercolour, circa 1920
NPG 5137
by Kenneth Green
oil on canvas, 1943
On display in Room 31 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG 5136
by Georg Ehrlich
plaster cast for bronze head, 1951
NPG 5910
Annie Walker (later Mrs Scarce); Benjamin Britten
by Boughtons
bromide print, 1914
NPG x15172
Edith Rhoda Britten (née Hockey); Benjamin Britten
by Unknown photographer
postcard print, circa 1916
NPG x15173
by Unknown photographer
snapshot print, January 1918
NPG x15174
Benjamin Britten with parents, sister Beth, Lizel Suter Schlotterbech and Winifred Rix
by Unknown photographer
snapshot print, circa 1918
NPG x15175
by Unknown photographer
bromide print, 1921
NPG x15176
by Unknown photographer
bromide print, September 1923
NPG x15178
by Frank Arthur Swaine
bromide print, circa 1930
NPG x15185
by Howard Coster
nitrate negative, 1930s
NPG x1633
Benjamin Britten; Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley
by Howard Coster
nitrate negative, 1930s
NPG x1634
by (Edward) Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten
snapshot print, December 1934
NPG x15186
by (Edward) Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten
snapshot print, December 1934
NPG x15187
Sir William Menzies Coldstream; W.H. Auden; Benjamin Britten
by Unknown photographer
snapshot print, 1937
NPG x15191
by Howard Coster
10 x 8 inch film negative, 1938
NPG x10469
Benjamin Britten; Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley
by Howard Coster
10 x 8 inch film negative, 1938
NPG x10470
Benjamin Britten; Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley
by Howard Coster
10 x 8 inch film negative, 1938
NPG x10471
Benjamin Britten; Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley
by Howard Coster
10 x 8 inch film negative, 1938
NPG x10472
by Howard Coster
10 x 8 inch film negative, 1938
NPG x24302
Francis Poulenc; Benjamin Britten
by Felix H. Man (Hans Baumann)
bromide print, circa 1941
NPG x76594
by Cecil Beaton
bromide print on white card mount, 1942
NPG x14036
by Howard Coster
half-plate film negative, 1944
NPG x15309
The Britten-Pears Foundation
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Auden group
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